Comments on: Week 2 Reflections

By: admin

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:29:23 +0000

Thanks. It’s been quite an adventure learning and grappling with what Second Life affords. Are you an educator? Do you use Second Life?

By: ElenaLisvato

ElenaLisvato — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:01:25 +0000

Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking you feeds also, Thanks.

By: admin

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:54:39 +0000

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your comments. I like your costume party analogy. You bring up something interesting – “jumping the fence” and taking on a new identity. My question is do these types of technologies enable the potential for a sort of “dual personality.” If so, could they both be real? Okay, I know some of it, like your costume party analogy, are just people behind a mask, but is there are part of what people represent themselves to be – real, too. Maybe it’s a part of them that they don’t know how to express in the “real world.” Don’t know, just thinking out loud here. The more I think about it, and the more we discuss it, the more I’m intrigued by the potential implications of 3D virtual worlds. Good or bad? Good and bad? Either way, I believe they will have an impact.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:55:24 +0000

Hi Dean
I enjoyed reading what you wrote about the Blurred line in the virtual world and reality. I agree with you that there is a level of comfort and interaction that is happening now is that is surprising. I think you pose a particularly intriguing question about identity — in world and real world. It is one thing in Second Life when we are using this class with an instructor. In that case, we take an extension of our identity, but not really a new one.
I am quite certain that there is a large percentage of Second Life participants that “jump the fence” and take on a new identity — explore new ways of communicating, expressing, being. At one level I find this a little off putting, as interactions in Second Life ought to be the real thing. In this sense it is like going to a costume party, where people take on the identities of the characters they are dressed as. I guess I would think of this as a novelty, but I wouldn’t expect to come back to the party over and over again and interact with same fake identity each time. Maybe it’s the social nature in me, but I expect my interactions to be with the “real person”. But maybe that’s an indication of my age and my expectation or interaction.